sail cleaning

[TJAGAIN]

sails are off for the winter but could do with a bit of a clean, so if anyone out there knows of a sail cleaner in or around the north midlands, could you point their location in my direction.

 

[Talbot]

Most sailmakers offer this service, but only do it if they really need it, as it is not really very good for the material.

 

[tangomoon]

We soak ours in fresh warm soapy water in a 50 gall butt - 2 rinses and a light pressure wash ( not too close) and hang to dry. It's nice if you can get the women to join in the fun and have a wet t-shirt day too

 

[samwise]

DIY washing is no problem, it's drying the thing afterwards. We washed our genoa in the inflatable on the dock in Lagos, Portugal. Gentle scrubbing got out most of the really grubby bits and we were able to rinse out ( in the dinghy) and then haul the sail up to dry in the sun and the very light breeze. Hard to do in the late Autumn in UK! The good thing about a professional valet job should be that the sailmaker should also carry out a detailed inspection of the sail and recommend some repair and preventive maintenance if required. This is particularly valuable if your sails are a few years old. A stitch in time saves a blowout later!

 

[Searush]

As a last resort I have washed sails in the bath. Treading them seemed to work well, but I wouldn't recommend this technique for reasonably good sails as you will probably "knock the stuffing out of them". Newer sails are coated with filler to make them less porous, age and maltreatment (like trampling them in the bath) will cause this to fall out.

Drying them is a big problem. Let them drain, then hang them over the landing banisters if you can, or over the line in the garden if weather is good.